me and the students – and I vowed never to attempt it again! The written word is easier to edit so, in lieu of a workshop, at the end of each article I offer a practical exercise to help train your artistic vision.

For whom the eye sees

An artist observes with a view to making a painting. A painting is an arrangement of elements such as line, shape, tone and colour, and includes esoteric things such as contrast, mood, energy or narrative. A painting is two-dimensional and rarely involves a huge space, so the figurative artist needs to notice arrangements and patterns in the real world that are suitable for this format, often in the blink of an eye, even though a painting is then made over time. Simply put, the artist must see from the point of view of the painting (below).

Umbrella Company, oil on canvas, 20x20in (51x51cm).  A painting, whether figurative or abstract, is a flat pattern made of tones, shapes, colours, and textures. Here, alternate dark and light tones march across the canvas from side to side, with reflections used to endorse the vertical ‘stripe’ and the slanting elliptical shapes of the umbrellas positioned to cross the horizontal axes. If the visual pattern works for the viewer, the result is pleasing to the eye.

Colours used: titanium white, Mars black, ultramarine blue, light red, Indian yellow, cadmium red.

Content continues after advertisements

The attraction of pattern

According to anthropologists, pattern is one of the key mechanisms that humans notice and adopt for survival. The recognition of patterns among the stars, for example, enabled man to predict seasons, navigate the globe and eventually visit the moon. The interpretation of geological patterns on earth opened the Pandora’s box of treasures that now fuel our modern world, while economists compile patterns of man-made data to know when to invest in them! Pattern is woven into the fabric of society. It is no wonder then that humans are attracted to pattern and make patterns, and artists are no exception.

Seeing patterns

Visual artists tend to be ruled by their eyes, so when a painter’s radar is alerted to something it is often due to an attractive or interesting pattern in their view. The attraction might be subconscious. The pattern could be a physical thing like a pleasing balance of light and shade, a satisfying repeat or interval, or a commanding arrangement of coloured shapes. Or it could be something more philosophical, an image redolent of isolation or friendship, for example. To turn the attraction into a painting, the artist recognises the nature of the pattern and chooses a set of painted tones, colours and shapes to create an arrangement on canvas or paper. Even if the inspiration is a concept, the physical elements that make the pattern visible still have to be accounted for and employed in order for a painting to materialise (above and below).

Inbound, Elephants on the Mara, Schmincke Horadam watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper, 22x30in (56x76cm).

If you enjoy observing the nuance of tone around a form then the tonal arrangement made by a herd of elephants on the move makes the perfect subject! Furthermore, the repeat pattern made by a line of oncoming elephants is both a visual and emotive treat. Each form, along with the interval between, is repeated, but in differing sizes - huge matriarchs to comparatively small babies – an endearing and exciting visual pattern.

Colours used: Prussian blue, violet, burnt sienna, yellow ochre

Strollers, Schmincke Horadam watercolour, 29x28in (73.5x71cm). The figures, accompanied by their shadows, were crossing the square below me. One figure would be alone one minute and then joined by others the next; some walked in pairs, others merged to become groups then separated to become isolated once again. Many followed the same direction, one or two went against the tide. Alone and in unison, the stream of people played out like a metaphor for the journey of life, but it was the tonal pattern set up between the dark of the positive figures, the light of the negative spaces and the mid-toned shadows, that attracted me to make a painting.

Colours used: ultramarine finest, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, light red, burnt umber, violet, plus several incidental colours to tint individual clothing.

Subject matter

When it comes to painting, for me, there is no difference in subject matter between elephants ambling through the African bush and figures parading the urban sprawl. This is because my subject matter – what excites me to paint – is the pattern of the tones, the shapes and the interval between those shapes. Early in my artistic journey I discovered that tone and shape were the main attraction for my eyes. It was the difference, whether slight or grand, between light and the lack of it, and how light enters or bounces off things, and thus shapes things, that drew my attention. Over the years, through looking with a view to painting, I have trained my eyes to notice tonal patterns. I have amusing proof that my training works when on occasion I drive straight past the entrance to my studio in Cape Town simply because I do not recognise the particular play of light and shade on the foliage at the gate! The other day I even believed that the ocean view below my studio had spawned a new bay simply because I read the roofline of a neighbour’s house as the sea – it was the same coloured tone and aligned perfectly with the shoreline to create a semblance that my eyes interpreted as a bay. The point is this: I trust my eyes. So, in this instance I was not at all surprised by the new view, I accepted it immediately, until I allowed my mind to intervene and rule out the improbable. 

Trusting the eyes

What I am trying to elaborate here is that a painter needs to train their eyes, and then trust their eyes, to notice the patterns that will make a good painting, instead of trusting their mind to choose apparently appropriate subject matter. The mind might tell you that one particular view is suitably picturesque, whereas another is too mundane, or the subject not worthwhile, but a painting does not see by subject – it is a flat pattern of tone, shapes, colours, contrasts etc – it needs to see the elements it employs. The painter’s task is to see the world on the painting’s behalf (below).

Speed of Life, oil on canvas, 12x17in (30.5x43cm). As I entered the tube station the people dashing to catch their trains were backlit by the sun. The energetic pattern of dark shapes passing in front of the dazzling light struck me like a strobe effect, visual and symbolic, spawning the inspiration for this painting. Back in my studio, I painted the silhouettes roughly with deep black, then used big brushes and a palette knife to paint the spaces of light between them, shaping the figures from the outside, and adjusting the dark tones with opaque hues. I thought only of the arrangement of shapes and tones, trusting the pattern would convey the esoteric narrative.

Colours used: titanium white, Mars black, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium red

Unique vision

The visual patterns and arrangements that attract you will undoubtedly be different from the ones that attract me, but whatever the inspiration, it is worth finding out what excites you most to paint, and then actively to seek it out and train your eye to notice it everywhere, bringing no limit to inspiration. Repetition, like any coaching, is the key to training the eye.

Exercise: Training the eye to see

TASK 1  PAINTING CIRCLES

Scatter a set of circular objects, such as lids, coins, caps etc, of differing colours, on the floor below you, so you can draw and paint them directly from above. Push some together, overlap others. Spend an hour drawing and painting these items in relation to each other, in monochrome. Try to draw perfect circles, and particularly note whether one is darker or lighter than the other, painting the tonal relationship as accurately as possible in a range from white to black. Immediately afterward, go out for a walk, or a drive, and note the things that draw your attention. I expect they will be circular shapes such as road signs, headlights, circles on advertisements. You will probably find yourself assessing their precise tone and their relationship with their background. The act of drawing and painting the circles trains the eye to notice specifics and for a while that training stays at the forefront of your vision.  If you found this exercise helpful, change the subject: exchange circles for a predominant colour pairing, for example blue and orange (I used ultramarine blue and sepia), or pursue a particular texture, such as shininess, and again follow your painting session with a walk or drive, noting what attracts your visual attention.

Content continues after advertisement